We live in a world we didn’t choose, became a member of a family we didn’t pick and grew in a community we may not want. Who we decide to be or what we want to become is not entirely a product of our own decision, but most likely influenced by the external trends of how the world told us to be who we are. I agree with what Karl Marx has said: “Men make their own history, but they do not make it just as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by them, but under circumstances directly encountered, given and transmitted from the past”. Before we are born, the status quo is already there. Regardless of us liking it or not, it is something we need to be part of. Be that as it may, we are not left having no rooms for choices to make. We have the liberty to choose whether to allow ourselves to be enslaved by the dictates of the existing societal structures and norms, or to refuse to blend in and transform the contracts we do not want the next generation to inherit.
1. Two-Faced Country
In the country I’m from, the Philippines, there has been an existential presence of failed generation contracts in numerous faces. In 2013, whenever a child is born, the child has an approximate debt of Php 56,000 (more than 900 Euros) instantly , whether the child accepts it or not. Basing from a report written by Jubilee Debt Organization, many people remain out of reach from health care services, causing six out of ten Filipinos who become sick die without ever seeing a doctor . Inequality is evident in the widening of the gap between the rich and poor in the Philippines. A data from the World Bank revealed that the net worth of the top 10 billionaires in the country accounts for 15.4% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) i...
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...icials”, September 16. http://gulfnews.com/news/world/philippines/cases-filed-against-38-corrupt-officials-1.1231679.
CNN. 2009. “Pushcart Educator Named CNN Hero of the Year”, November 22. http://edition.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/11/16/cnnheroes.tribute.show/.
Bacani, Louis. 2013. “SM Honors Cheerful Elevator Girl in Viral Video”, August 7. http://www.philstar.com/nation/2013/08/07/1062661/sm-honors-cheerful-elevator-girl-viral-video.
Rupesinghe, Kumar, and C. Rubio, eds. Culture of Violence, The. Vol. 81. United Nations Univ. Press, 1994.
“Passion.” 2014. Oxford Dictionaries. Accessed January 28. http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/passion.
Freire, Paulo. 2000. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Translated by Myra Bergman Ramos. 30th Anniversary Edition. New York: Bloomsbury Academic. http://www.users.humboldt.edu/jwpowell/edreformFriere_pedagogy.pdf.
Structural violence is differentiated from direct violence both in terms of etiology and nature. D...
The world is divided up into numerous things: Countries, states, cities, communities, etc. However, when looking at the big scope of things, one can group the vast amount of people into a society. This society is where the majority lie in the scheme of things - in other words, the common people. Individuals do exist in this society, but they are scarce in a world of conformism. Society’s standards demands an individual to conform, and if the individual refuses they are pushed down by society.
Everybody wants to be accepted, yet society is not so forgiving. It bends you and changes you until you are like everyone else. Society depends on conformity and it forces it upon people. In Emerson's Self Reliance, he says "Society is a joint stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater." People are willing to sacrifice their own hopes and freedoms just to get the bread to survive. Although the society that we are living in is different than the one the Emerson's essay, the idea of fitting in still exists today. Although society and our minds make us think a certain way, we should always trust our better judgment instead of just conforming to society.
Aggression, violence, and victimization are remarkably dynamic terms. How these terms are understood and defined is shaped by formal and informal social policies and controls (Goldstein, 1986). Excluding assertiveness from the definition of aggression as it relates to violence, aggression can be considered to encompass behaviors intended to cause physical or psychological harm. Violence may be understood as an extreme form of aggression, in which the intent of the perpetrator is to cause serious harm (Berkowitz, 1993). Anthropological research on various non-western cultures demonstrates that aggression and violence are not necessarily inevitable, nor are they universal (Goldstein, 1986). Like words and manners, as Elias points out, the concepts transform over time, and vary across and within cultures (Fletcher, 1997).
"Students Against Violence Everywhere (SAVE)." Mavia Newsline: Autumn 1997. 1997, 1998. Http://www.mavia.org.aut97/aut 97_newsletter.htm (20 Sept. 1998).
Violence causes a great deal of suffering and harm in the world today and yesterday (Cross 2013). Peace and conflict researchers are undeniably justified in their selection of inter and intra-state violence as objects of study because the social context for both the performance and understanding of violence is of central importance (Cross 2013). However it is surprisingly rare to find a definition of violence (Moore 2003). Thus uncertainty prevails as to whether violence is limited to physical abuse or includes verbal and psychological abuse (Moore 2003). Agreeing with Moore (2003), Galtung (1969) said it is not important to arrive at a definition of violence because there are obliviously many types of violence. Violence is not
The neoliberal policies have benefited some people in generating great wealth for them, but controversially, the policies have failed to benefit the people who live in extreme poverty and those people are the most in need for financial support (Makwana, 2006). In the last 2 to 3 decades, the wealth disparity between nations as well as within nations has increased. Currently, one out of every 5 children in the United States is in a state of poverty, continual hunger, insecurity and lack of health care (MIT, 2000). This situation is becoming even more desperate. Between 1960 and 1980, the developing countries’ economic growth was 3.2 percent. Then it dropped significantly to 0.7 percent between 1980 and 2000, and this is the period when neolibe...
attached to youth violence, from the modern era to present day. Based on this meaning,
Education is at the core of humanity and its teaching has been mistreated. Based on Paulo Freire’s theory, education has been torn apart from its truthful purpose. It is now used to alienate human beings instead of promoting unity. Throughout this chapter, Chapter 2 in Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed, he concentrates on the teacher-student relationship in classrooms. He sees education as information that is being passed on or “banked” from teachers to students.
Hooks, Bell. "Chapter 1 Engaged Pedagogy." Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. New York: Routledge, 1994. N. pag. Print.
Hamilton, Tim and Sharma, Satish. "The violence and oppression of power relations" Peace Review: A Journal of Social Justice 9.4 (1997). 22 Mar. 2011
In conclusion, we as a society have to realize that individuality goes much deeper than material things and that it is okay to be different. Conforming to what society feels you should do will not only be detrimental to our growth as humans but as a world community as well.
Pedagogy of the Oppressed is a nonfiction book by Brazilian author Paulo Freire. The book is best known for its philosophical concepts on oppression as it pertains to education. Since the book 's first publication in 1978 it has become a worldwide staple for educators and activists alike, who strive to conquer the problem of oppression in its many facets of life. Pedagogy of the Oppressed is an eye-opening and life changing book that should be a requirement for all future educators in order to ensure success in creating a liberating and humanizing education system.
DuNann Winter, D., & Leighton, D. C. (2001 ). Structural Violence . Peace, conflict, and violence: Peace psychology in the 21st. New York : Prentice-Hall.
Violence. Just mentioning the word conjures up many images of assault, abuse, and even murder. Violence is a broad subject with many categories. Some types of violence are terrorist violence and domestic violence. Violence can arise from many different sources; these sources whether biological, cultural, and social all can evoke violent behavior. All cultures experience some sort of violence, and this paper considers violence as a cultural phenomenon across a range of various settings. Violence plays a part in both Islamic and Indian cultures according to the articles “Understanding Islam” and “Rising Dowry Deaths” by Kenneth Jost and Amanda Hitchcock, respectively. From an anthropological perspective, violence emphasizes concerns of meaning, representation and symbolism.